Amazon.in festive sales up three-fold; ships over 15 million units

Online retailers which are trying to outdo each other with deals and discounts during the biggest discount sale of the year are making claims of blockbuster growth during a year which has been relatively quiet for the industry.

On Wednesday, Amazon, which closed its five-day Great Indian Festive Sale, said its Prime subscription service was the star of the show, and that the volume of sales on its platform grew three-fold to more than 15 million orders six hours before the deals ended — that’s an average of over 38 orders per second.

“I would not be surprised if we are the leader,” said Amit Agarwal, the country head for Amazon in India. The three biggest online retailers — Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal — have been touting statistics to prove their dominance during the festival sale.

The Big Three have timed their sales to overlap with each other, but this could also be because it makes business sense — the beginning of the month is when wallets are the fattest, and Dussehra and Diwali both fall during October.

Amazon’s Agarwal was eager to emphasise that it is not just the festival sale that has been outstanding for his company. “All through the year we have been growing at 150% even though market landscape has been flat. In Diwali, we have accelerated our growth to three times as compared to last year,” he said.

Companies putting out big numbersThe numbers were reported by Amazon India a day after Flipkart said it clocked gross sales of over Rs 1,400 crore on Monday, with smartphones accounting for half of it.

The Bengaluru-based company is targetting sales of over $500 million or Rs 3,350 crore, compared with Rs 2,000 crore registered during its fiveday sale in 2015, ET reported earlier this week.

Delhi-based Snapdeal said it expects to clock sales of 11 million units and register gross sales of Rs 1,700-1,800 crore as it closes its five-day sale on Thursday. Amazon’s Prime, which gives subscribers quicker deliveries and is priced at Rs 499 a year, also emerged surprisingly as the best-seller.

Separately, one in three orders came from Prime customers.

Amazon India has also expanded its reach during the sale, as it increased new customer additions by five times and received orders from 90% of the Pin codes. About 65 per cent of the orders came from tier-II towns, and there was a 30-fold increase in orders from tier-III geographies compared with last Diwali.

Besides mobile phones and fashion, which are the two biggest categories in Indian online retail, Amazon India has also been aggressively pushing into consumables. This includes items ranging from diapers, washing powder and grocery items.

The push into consumables is part of Amazon’s global strategy to sell every product that a customer wants. “When you are serving 90 per cent of the Pin codes, you need to appeal to every kind of customer and not just those who buy an iPhone or a One Plus,” said Agarwal.

Amazon India has ramped up investment since 2015 as it looks to increase its market share, even as local rivals such as Flipkart and Snapdeal have focussed on cutting burn rate and improving unit economics since the start of the year.

In the first 12 hours of the sale Flipkart and its fashion portal Myntra had sold 2.25 million units while Amazon India said it sold 1.5 million units. Snapdeal claimed it sold 1.67 million units in the first 16 hours of its sale.